CounterPunch Exclusives

CounterPunch Exclusives

There is No Justice Without Veganism

Image by Claudio Schwarz.

I have been a vegan for a number of years, but have kept it low key. I am surrounded by meat eaters and “vegetarians” and have been too self-conscious to proselytize, but that is not to my credit. Moral silence should never be conflated with politeness. As a writer for, and an avid reader of leftist, alternative platforms, I occasionally encounter arguments for veganism related to climate/environmental contingencies, but less often read about the many moral/ethical principles that hover at the boundaries of veganism and carnivorousness. A lot of climate writing focuses on fossil fuels alone – what do these climate experts eat?

Veganism opens up a can of worms, but vegan silence sustains evil systems. How many carnivores need only a tiny nudge? Compassionate people tremble with guilt and uncertainty as denial thins and frays. I speak as a late convert with my own mountains of remorse. How many among us have never “hired” a proxy killer to place that Norman Rockwell turkey on grandma’s plate? How many left leaning carnivores vacillate between recalcitrance and guilt? How many shy, lefty vegans tread warily around the ambivalence of their meat devouring comrades?

There is a huge hole in the collective center of the left, and I am proposing that veganism should be at the epicenter of leftist thinking. If speciesism and animal slaughter are just, than maybe racism and war can also be rationalized. Meat consumption speaks to the fragility of humanitarian commitment. On leftist platforms I can write about the horrors of carpet-bombing civilians with a rather reassuring assumption that readers do not pilot war planes or manufacture explosives. But if I write about the obscene murder of 125 million pigs annually in the industrial machine of animal-genocide-for-profit I will summon the discomfort of otherwise thoughtful people casually living lives with bacon in their guts. Meat consumption is a secret topic tucked in a closet, hidden from our collective scrutiny.

Veganism quietly attaches to a complex web of tangential issues – militarism, climate, socialism, capitalism, media, consumerism, community and religion all interface with veganism. Veganism should not be seen as a mere diet (although it might be nothing more for a few individuals), but rather functions as a gauge of ones consciously chosen place on a moral continuum. People who call themselves leftists often shy away from the issue of veganism, but, as fascism swallows up culture and strives to turn us into either monsters or zombies, we ought to be aware of our personal (universal) propensity for mindless cruelty. Both fascism and meat eating are founded on mass oblivion. The act of consuming tortured flesh may well be the most fundamental ritual of societal complicity. Very few of us have never indulged in this violent act. We are all adjuncts to capitalism, to exploitation, to mass surrender, to the abandonment of moral principles via the blood ritual that compels us to sign a defacto vow of silence.

Where are the boundaries of veganism? Can a vegan wear leather shoes? Can a vegan play baseball with a leather glove and a horsehide covered ball? Can a vegan go for a drive and arrive home with a windshield covered with dead insects? To live as a human being embedded in human institutions makes perfect veganism impossible. When I go to a restaurant and order the one vegan option off of a menu with 50 dishes with meat, chicken and fish, I support the institution of industrial slaughter that almost every restaurant represents. When I buy broccoli and brussels sprouts at the grocery store I support the food industry and all of its murderous components. One can utterly capitulate to a society in which everyone is seduced into a common level of complicity, or one can be exquisitely aware of their own compromises, and still strive to resist the momentum of moral obliteration as fiercely as possible. I place my veganism on a moral continuum with the understanding that my compromises form a bridge to reach out to meat eaters. A perfect vegan has no common ground on which to open such a painful, potentially accusatory discourse. For the record, I don’t wear leather belts or shoes but use a sixty year old baseball glove on the rare occasion when a game of geriatric catch transpires.

There are better vegans than I am – the people in Wisconsin who took rubber bullets and tear gas to rescue beagles bred for research provide an example. But are all of these people even vegans? In a world founded upon surplus malice, we can only pool our imperfections. Every injustice becomes a full time job. One can easily do nothing but assist immigrants, or organize around climate, or resist the war machine, or fight for unions, or health care, or housing, or........

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